The petroleum ministry on Thursday announced that some commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders would be released to certain beneficiaries amid the crisis fuelled by the chaos in the Gulf.
The ministry has also said that an additional 48,000 kilolitres (kl) of kerosene would be released to various states, in addition to the one lakh kilolitres given earlier.
This comes as the closure of the Hormuz Strait reaches its 13th day amid the war between Iran and US-Israel forces, effectively impacting about 20 per cent of the global energy cargo flowing through it.
In an inter-ministerial briefing, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), highlighted on Thursday that the LPG supply issue had led to a surge in panic buying, in addition to affecting food output at restaurants and hotels, and raising petrol prices.
"The LPG Control Order issued on March 8, 2026, directed all refineries to maximise LPG yields and channel the entire output of C3 and C4 hydrocarbon streams ... exclusively to the three Oil Marketing Companies for domestic cooking gas. Hence, in the last five days, LPG production has been increased by 28 per cent through refinery directives, and further procurement is actively underway," the petroleum ministry said in a statement.
Urging people to press pause on panic buying, Sharma also noted that the environment ministry had allowed the use of alternative fuels like biomass, coal, and kerosene at commercial establishments for one month to offset the supply cut.
Moving forward, with the Centre announcing on Wednesday that it had absorbed a major part of the LPG price increase amid the crisis, the petroleum ministry has said that energy procurement has now been actively diversified, as it begins/increases energy imports from the US, Norway, Canada, Algeria, and Russia, in addition to whatever Gulf sources are currently available.